Monday, September 05, 2011

Pony tail costs long jumper gold medal at World Championships

Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova may be contemplating a haircut as her long pony tail probably cost her the long jump world title at The World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Photographic evidence showed the swinging pony tail of the Belarussian Mironchyk-Ivanova hit the ground behind her body on landing and its mark in the sand became the measuring point for the competition judges.

The third-round jump on Sunday was measured at 6.74 metres which was only good enough for fourth place. Had her hair not hit the ground the jump would have been around 6.90m which would have given her gold.

Instead, American Brittney Reese defended the title, and received 60,000 dollars (42,000 euros), with 6.82m.

Osis, you misunderstand (purely out of jest, I'm sure. I hope). The point of long jumping isn't how far away from the plank you can fling some part of you, but how far away from the plank you can fling the whole of you.

Half you are morons. It's obvious hair shouldn't count. Go back to sucking your bottles of fine wine and gawking over your art galleries. Wake up to the real world. Realistically hair shouldn't count as it is virtually insignificant in terms of performance.

If hair shouldn't count, what about the back of the jumper's head? I mean, technically it would most likely be only the hair that would touch the sand if the jumper's head was to leave a mark on it. If there is a mark on the sand and it isn't clear whether it was made by a brush of the hair or a touch of the scalp, how would you hair exception people measure the jump? As the rules are now, as far as I've understood, there is no room for interpretation and argument, the first mark on the sand counts and that's it. I don't think that's unfair in any way, but then again, I'm one of the morons who doesn't see the obvious.

How can any of you say this is not fair?The same rules apply to everybody.

Besides, it's not the hair that counts but the mark on the sand. And it's not like she couldn't have avoided it. She quite knowingly wore her hair in a swinging ponytail.

Sure it's awful for her but it's also a pretty stupid blunder. And just because she COULD have won gold doesn't mean she deserves special treatment. I'm sure countless other contestants could have done better if they'd not made some stupid mistake. That's part of the game. This is a competition and not schoolyard skipping.